Taliban govt orders women to cover up
KABUL: The Taliban government decreed on Saturday that Afghan women must cover themselves from head to toe, expanding a series of onerous restrictions on women that dictate nearly every aspect of public life.
The decree, by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, drew condemnation from women’s rights advocates and the United Nations, which described it as another bald betrayal of Taliban pledges to respect gender equality.
The ministry suggested the burqa as the preferred garment for covering a woman’s face, hair and body. But it did not mandate wearing the garment as long as women otherwise cover themselves with a hijab.
The full-body burqa, long emblematic of patriarchal control of women’s public attire in Afghanistan, was described by the ministry as “the good and complete hijab” — a garment with various versions that cover a woman’s hair and much or all of her face and body.
Since the Taliban seized control in August, Afghan women have been subjected to a cascade of announcements restricting their aspects of public life. Many had assumed that the return of a burqa-style body covering was the inevitable next step.
The burqa was required by the Taliban when it ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
The United Nations mission in Afghanistan said the Taliban decree would create new strains in the militant group’s efforts to gain international recognition as the country’s legitimate government.
In a statement posted on its website, the mission said the decree “contradicts numerous assurances regarding respect for and protection of all Afghans’ human rights, including those of women and girls, that had been provided to the international community by Taliban representatives during discussions and negotiations over the past decade”.
At a three-hour news conference dominated by pronouncements promoting the religious virtues of the burqa, ministry officials and religious figures dictated a series of escalating punishments, including jail time for male family heads who disregard warnings.
If a woman failed to wear the prescribed hijab in public, ministry officials would visit her home and advise the male head of the family to require her to comply, the ministry announcement said.
Failure to comply would result in a summons to the ministry, officials said. If the man still failed to follow the rules, he would be jailed for three days.